paramedics

New Year's Eve was particularly busy in Amsterdam, the municipality revealed on Tuesday. Police responded to more incidents than last year, gun use was on the rise, fire fighters were sent out on more calls, and five people were injured in fireworks accidents.

There were seven assaults on Amsterdam police officers at the turn of the new year, and one bus driver was assaulted. This is a slight increase on a year earlier, when there were five such cases.

An hours long search for a missing boy on the IJsselmeer had a happy ending on Monday night. The 13-year-old from Urk was found alive and well on Houtribdijk near IJsselmeer, the Coast Guard said on Twitter.

The boy took a sloop onto the IJsselmeer from Urk early on Monday evening, according to NU.nl. When he did not return home, a large search involving a helicopter and multiple lifeboats from rescue organization KNRM was launched. The coast guard, a few fishing cutters, the fire brigade and the police also helped in the search.

A baby was born in Bakery Risseeuw in Hulst on Monday morning, shortly after the mother went into cardiac arrest. The mother was resuscitated. Both she and the child were rushed to hospital, AD reports.

The pregnant woman became unwell in the bakery on Stationsweg around 10:30 a.m. Emergency services responded in large numbers. The mother was resuscitated and the baby was brought into the world through a caesarean section.

Emergency services acted correctly and performed their duties properly during stabbing incidents in Maastricht last year in which two people were killed, the Inspectorate of Justice and Security concluded after investigating the incident, NOS reports.

A visitor to the Tweede Kamer jumped off the public gallery during a parliamentary debate on organized crime on Thursday. Eyewitnesses claim it was an attempted suicide, though this has not yet been confirmed, NU.nl reports.

The parliamentary debate was halted and the meeting chamber evacuated. The man was taken to hospital, injured but alive, a spokesperson for the Hague police said to NU.nl.

The spokesperson confirmed that the man jumped off the gallery himself. Attempted suicide is one of the scenarios the police are investigating.

Two children were killed in a house fire that ignited Saturday morning in Emmen. The victims are a six-year-old boy and his five-year-old sister, a regional police office reported.

Their parents were not seriously injured in the blaze, and were transported to an area hospital for treatment. Police took charge of the investigation into the incident, a fire department spokesperson told Hart van Nederland. The victims' mother was sedated at the hospital, while the father was kept apprised of the ongoing situation.

Ambulance workers in the Netherlands are concerned about not being prepared to deal with a terrorist attack, unions FNV and CNV Ambulance Care said to BNR. According to the unions, there are still no protocols in place to ensure the safety of ambulance workers while responding to an attack.

An 8-year-old boy from Belgium drowned in a natural pool on the Flaasbloem campgrounds in in Chaam, Noord-Brabant on Wednesday afternoon. The boy was visiting family at the campsite, NU.nl reports.

Alarm was sounded on the campsite around 5:00 p.m. when the boy from Zonnebeke was nowhere to be found. Police, firefighters, paramedics and an air ambulance responded to the site, because there were concerns that the child ended up in the natural pool.

The municipality of Enschede signed an agreement with drone maker DJI in which DJI will train firefighters and paramedics in flying drones. Drones are expected to one day play a big role in emergency situations, and this agreement is intended to make sure that Dutch emergency workers are able to use them, RTL Z reports.

A 33-year-old man was arrested in Oosterhout on Monday afternoon after he kidnapped a baby in Breda. The baby was found safe and unharmed, still in the man's possession. Paramedics took care of the baby while the seemingly disturbed man was arrested, AD reports.

The man has some kind of connection with the child, though the police would not confirm the relationship due to privacy concerns. The police did say that the man had an appointment with aid workers and a woman at aid organization Veilig Thuis and that he took the baby from there.

Union FNV Care and Welfare warns of a massive shortage in paramedics and ambulance staff in the near future. In the short term, the union is especially concerned about safety on King's Day. "Given the number of people on the move that day, it can lead to irresponsible situations", Fred Seifert of FNV said to broadcaster NOS.

The union sent a letter about the situation to Minister Edith Schippers of Public Health and the Healthcare Inspectorate, but so far got no response. Which is why FNV decided to sound the alarm in the media, Seifert said.

From today until Thursday the port of Rotterdam will be the scene of large drills on what to do during terrorist attacks or other large emergencies and threats. The port protection exercise is called "Port Defender Rotterdam" and includes the Royal Navy, the National Police, the Port of Rotterdam and the local safety office Veiligheidsregio Rotterdam-Rijnmond, AD reports.

A train crashed into a car at a guarded crossing on Ruinerweg in Echten on Friday morning. According to the police, the driver of the car managed to get out of his car under his own power. He is currently being checked over by paramedics, NU.nl reports.

No ambulances were called for train passengers, which seems to indicate that no one on the train was injured. The accident happened at a level crossing guarded by barriers.

Inflatable toys sent first responders in Amsterdam and Roosendaal rushing to the rescue on Christmas day. Amsterdam police responded to what turned out to be a inflatable crocodile in one of the canals. And the Roosendaal police discovered their dead body was a naked blow-up doll.

Several police units in Amsterdam responded to the canal on 1e Constantijn Huygenstraat after someone reported a crocodile swimming in the canal. At the scene the police did find a crocodile, though this one did not seem to be much of a threat - it was an inflatable pool toy.

A three-month old baby girl died in her sleep during nap time at a daycare in the Overijssel town of Balkburg on Thursday morning. According to the police, the baby died a natural death so no investigation was launched. The baby's parents can decide whether the child must be further examined

A 3-year-old boy died in Zaandam on Monday after he ended up in the waters of the Zuidervaart. Emergency services tried to resuscitate him and he was rushed to the hospital, but it was too late to save him, the police said on Twitter.

An as yet unidentified man was killed in a shooting a home on Crooswijkseweg in Rotterdam during the early hours of Wednesday morning. Two persons were arrested and their involvement in the shooting is under investigation, the police said in a statement on Wednesday morning.

A man was killed in an accident during work under a sewer pipe on Letostraat in Tilburg on Monday morning. A trench collapsed, causing an avalanche of sand and trapping the man between the pipe and the sand, a police spokesperson said to Omroep Brabant.

A three-year-old girl was critically injured on Wednesday after a dog attacked her and her mother while they were out for a walk. The toddler was bitten repeatedly in the attack, while her mother’s arm was injured.

For the first time in history ambulance staff across the nation embarked on a simultaneous strike action after wage negotiations stalled with employer Ambulancezorg Netherlands (AZN).Employees participating in the mass strike action only responded to emergency situations, while scheduled patient transport was be put on hold.

Paramedics across the Netherlands will hold their first-ever nationwide work stoppage on Wednesday, the FNV union announced on Tuesday. Ambulance crews will only respond to dispatch calls for actual emergencies, and will not go ahead with pre-planned patient transport, the union said.

At least four people were injured Wednesday morning when two different explosions occurred in a biomass power plant in Borssele, Zeeland, the regional safety office reported. The office says all four were hospitalized, however broadcaster Omroep Zeeland says two people received serious injuries and were rushed to an area hospital and the others were treated at the scene.

One person was killed and another wounded when an elevator fell inside a building on the TU/Eindhoven campus. The elevator fell seven stories and trapped both victims, believed to be workers taking part in the building’s renovations, according to Omroep Brabant.

A well-respected 96-year-old resident of the De Pijp district in Amsterdam was beaten and stabbed several times in the stomach Thursday evening on the Govert Flinckstraat, police said. The assailant, a 24-year-old man from Arnhem, still had the knife with him when he confessed to a mobile police unit less than an hour later on Dam Square.